Effect of Tillage and Weed Management Practices on Dry Matter, Yield and Nutrient Uptake by Plant and Depletion by Weed in Lentil Crop (Lens culinaris M.)

Aims: To evaluate the impact of tillage and weed management techniques on Plant dry weight, Yield, nutrient uptake by plant and depletion by weed in lentil crop (Lens culinaris M.).

Place and Duration of Study: A field study was conducted at Research Farm of Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar, India, from Oct 2020 to Mar 2021.

Methodology: The experiment followed a split-plot design with three replications. The main plots consisted of three tillage practices (M1: Zero tillage, M2: Minimum tillage, and M3: Conventional tillage), while subplots included five weed management practices [T1: control, T2: 1 hand weeding at 20 DAS, T3: chlorimuron-ethyl 4 g/ha (pre-emergence) + paddy straw mulching (5.0 t/ha), T4: quizalofop-ethyl 40 g/ha at 20 DAS (post-emergence) and T5: chlorimuron-ethyl 4 g/ha (pre-emergence) + quizalofop-ethyl 40 g/ha at 20 DAS (post-emergence)].

Results: Among the tillage practices conventional found most effective in term of increasing plant dry weight, grain yield, straw yield, nutrient uptake by crop while effectively reduce the weed dry matter and nutrient depletion by the weed. Among the weed management practices hand weeding proved to be the most effective weed management practice, leading to higher plant dry matter, grain yield, straw yield and nutrient uptake by crop and least weed dry matter weight and nutrient depletion by weeds. Among the chemical weeding chlorimuron ethyl (PE) + paddy straw mulching showed comparable effectiveness to hand weeding in all the parameters. These results highlight the importance of tillage practices and effective weed management techniques in optimizing plant growth, yield, nutrient uptake, and weed control.